I remember seeing pictures of Mike's truck when it was all white and had 31" tires. It either had a 20R or 22R and he converted it to EFI and said it screamed. Way before any 4.3....
Yeah, and how much coin did he lay out?
"22RE improvements" don't get a lot of bang for the money you put into it. I don't even want to think about how much money I dumped into my old 22RE powered truck to get a bit more performance.
It doesn't matter if the lockers are locked or not.
ANY part time 4wd will bind on dry pavement when it is in 4wd and the hubs are locked. It makes no difference if it is bone stock or it has lockers or what ever.
On what type of surface are you doing this test?
If you are doing it on dry pavement, it will bind in 4wd and just straightening the wheel might not be enough to free up the binding until you have driven it further.